USS Candid (AM-154)

Career (United States)
Name: USS Candid (AMc-131)
Builder: Willamette Iron and Steel Works
Reclassified: AM-154, 21 February 1942
Laid down: 27 April 1942
Launched: 14 October 1942
Commissioned: 31 October 1943
Decommissioned: 17 August 1945[1]
Fate: Transferred to Soviet Navy 17 August 1945
Reclassified: MSF-154, 7 February 1955
Struck: 1 January 1983
Career (Soviet Union)
Name: T-283[2]
Acquired: 17 August 1945
Commissioned: 17 August 1945[1]
Fate: Stricken 1958[3]
General characteristics
Class and type:Admirable-class minesweeper
Displacement:650 tons
Length:184 ft 6 in (56.24 m)
Beam:33 ft (10 m)
Draft:9 ft 9 in (2.97 m)
Propulsion:2 × ALCO 539 diesel engines, 1,710 shp (1.3 MW)
Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear
2 shafts
Speed:14.8 knots (27.4 km/h)
Complement:104
Armament:1 × 3"/50 caliber gun DP
2 × twin Bofors 40 mm guns
1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar
2 × depth charge tracks
Service record
Part of: U.S. Pacific Fleet (1943-1945)
Soviet Pacific Ocean Fleet (1945-1958)

USS Candid (AM-154) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II and in commission from 1943 to 1945. In 1945, she was transferred to the Soviet Union and served after that in the Soviet Navy as T-283.

Construction and commissioning

Originally classified as a "coastal minesweeper," AMc-131, Candid was reclassified as a "minesweeper," AM-154, on 21 February 1942. She was launched on 14 October 1942 at Portland, Oregon, by Willamette Iron and Steel Works and commissioned on 31 October 1943 with Lieutenant E. G. Bemis, USNR, in command.

Service history

Candid departed San Francisco, California, on 28 February 1944 for duty in the waters of the Territory of Alaska. Called upon to escort convoys and conduct patrols as well as to sweep for mines, she sailed through stormy waters to fog-bound ports in the Aleutian Islands, supporting United States Army units on the isolated islands and backing up U.S. Navy attacks on the Kuril Islands of northern Japan. She returned to San Francisco on 18 August 1944, and two weeks later got underway for the Marshall Islands for operations there and in the Mariana Islands, providing local escort services in support of the consolidation of these islands and their development as bases for naval and air strikes against the Japanese.

On 16 April 1945, Candid got underway for Seattle, Washington and an overhaul. Selected for transfer to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, Alaska, in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan – she departed Seattle in the summer of 1945 after the completion of her overhaul and proceeded to Cold Bay to begin familiarization training for her new Soviet crew.[4]

Soviet Navy, 1945-1958

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, Candid was decommissioned on 17 August 1945[1] at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately.[1] Also commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,[1] she was designated as a tralshik ("minesweeper") and renamed T-283[2] in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served in the Soviet Far East.[4]

In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II, and on 8 May 1947, United States Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal informed the United States Department of State that the United States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned. Deteriorating relations between the two countries as the Cold War broke out led to protracted negotiations over the ships, and by the mid-1950s the U.S. Navy found it too expensive to bring home ships that had become worthless to it anyway. Many ex-American ships were merely administratively "returned" to the United States and instead sold for scrap in the Soviet Union, while the U.S. Navy did not seriously pursue the return of others because it viewed them as no longer worth the cost of recovery.[5] The Soviet Union never returned Candid to the United States, although the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated her MSF-154 on 7 February 1955.

Disposal

The Soviet Navy struck T-283 from its vessel register in 1958.[3] Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy kept Candid on its Naval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Candid article states that the U.S. Navy decommissioned Candid on 16 August 1945, and NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Candid (MSF 154) ex-AM-154 ex-AMc-131 and hazegray.org Candid repeat this. However, more recent research in Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 39, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, indicates that the U.S. decommissioning date of Project Hula ships was the same as that of the date of transfer and of their Soviet Navy commissioning – see photo captions on p. 24 regarding the transfers of various large infantry landing craft (LCI(L)s) and information on p. 27 about the transfer of USS Coronado (PF-38), which Russell says typified the transfer process – which in Candid‍ '​s case was 17 August 1945. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994. Apparently, Candid‍ '​s U.S. Navy decommissioning, transfer, and Soviet Navy commissioning all occurred simultaneously in a single ceremony on 17 August 1945.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Candid (MSF 154) ex-AM-154 ex-AMc-131 and hazegray.org Candid state that Candid was named T-594 in Soviet service, but more recent research in Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, pp. 39-40, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, finds that the ship's Soviet name was T-283, while an auxiliary motor minesweeper, the former USS YMS-139, also transferred in 1945, had the Soviet name T-594. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Candid (MSF 154) ex-AM-154 ex-AMc-131 and hazegray.org Candid state that the ship allegedly was scrapped in 1956, but more recent research in Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 39, reports that the ship's Soviet name was T-283 and states that T-283 was stricken in 1958. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994. Russell, p. 40., also states that T-594 – a Soviet name previously attributed to Candid but now identified as belonging to the former USS YMS-139 – was scrapped in 1955, probably explaining some of the confusion over the fate of T-283, although this does not explain the assertion that T-594 was probably scrapped in the following year.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 39.
  5. ↑ Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, pp. 37-38, 39.